Soprano

Soprano Anna Elder’s voice has been described as being, “ethereal” or “a voice that has blues, reds and purples in it” by The New York Times , having a “take no-prisoners energy” SEAMUS for New Focus Recordings or “a voice that could match, pitch for pitch, the grumble of a truck’s engine or squeak of a scooter’s horn.”-  Wilmington Star News. Born and raised in the steel city of Pittsburgh, PA and based in Brooklyn, NY, Anna specializes in interpreting and performing contemporary classical music that expands the traditional vocal performance practice and virtuosity. She performs with the new music ensembles SydeBoob Duo and Kamratōn. She premiered roles in the following new operas: Eric Moe’s We Crossed the River, Roger Zahab’s Hegemony, Curtis Rumrill’s Her Holiness the Winter Dog, and Julia Werntz’s The Strange Child.  She was a guest artist at The Tanglewood Music Center for their Festival of Contemporary Music, where she sang Andrew Hamilton’s “Music For People Who Like Art” with The New Fromm Players. She appeared in the Corningworks’ production of “with a shadow of...” as a stand-in vocalist for an ill cast member. “While an unanticipated addition, Elder’s superb voice and inclusion on stage was seamless and enriching.  Her sequence with Brenner, in which they perfectly mirrored each other while performing a particularly tasking and complex choreography, is so unspeakably scintillating that one could scarcely imagine it hadn’t been planned from inception.” -Pittsburgh in the Round.

Anna was the lead vocalist with Squonk Opera for three years and premiered Go Roadshow and sang in the Off-Broadway version of Mayhem and Majesty, where she was described as creating “a sort of persona that becomes tangible which takes shape and begins to define what unfolds on stage.” -Broadway World. Other engagements have included performing with New Music Detroit, appearing as a guest vocalist with Quince Ensemble, Carnegie Mellon’s Contemporary Ensemble, and Chicago’s Experimental Sound Studio. She has appeared on Splice Festival V, Festival Cultural de Mayo, Eastman School of Music’s Guest Artist Series, Music on the Edge’s Beyond Microtonal Music Festival, New Music Gathering, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music (SEAMUS), The International Federation for Electro-acoustic Music (CIME) The Pittsburgh Festival of New Music, Detroit’s Strange and Beautiful Music, Oh My Ears Festival, and The Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound festival. She has been in residence with the composition department at The University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Pennsylvania State University, Duke University, Society of Composers Inc, and Lawrence University. 

This 2024-2025 season Anna will perform concerts and residencies with her ensembles Kamratōn and SydeBoob Duo. She will be releasing the record, Arnold Schoenberg’s Op.21 Pierrot Lunaire–Atonal Adventures in Stereo Sound with composer and arranger Aaron Wyanski on Speculative Records. In 2025 with SydeBoob Duo, she will be releasing their debut record Au Naturel, with support from Chamber Music America. She will tour with SydeBoob duo to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Maryland this season. 

Ms. Elder describes herself as a full service musician, often pushing the limits of the human voice and enjoys composing, improvising, and commissioning new music. Anna can be heard and seen anywhere from a basement to a concert hall.

Flutes

Based in Pittsburgh and Brooklyn, flutist Sarah Steranka enjoys a multifaceted career as a recitalist, chamber musician, and advocate for new and experimental music. Since making her solo debut with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic at the age of nineteen, she has dedicated her career to exploring the innovative work of living composers and pushing the boundaries of her instruments. Steranka has premiered works by Ramin Akhavijou, Marilyn Shrude, Elizabeth Brown, Zvonimir Nagy, Erin Rogers, Nicole Mitchell, Nancy Galbraith, Lauren Siess, and countless others.

Steranka has presented programs of new and experimental music at SPLICE Festival, the SCI National Student Conference, the Mid-Atlantic Flute Festival, Music on the Edge’s Beyond Microtonal Music Festival, the New Jersey Flute Fair, The Pittsburgh Festival of New Music, and The Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound festival. Her recordings of solo and chamber works have been published by Sound Silence Thought, Albany Records, and Naxos, and have in addition been self-published by countless composers.

As a symphony musician, Steranka is second flute of the Westmoreland Symphony and has also appeared as a guest with the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Erie Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. In addition, she is a core member of the nationally recognized new music collective SydeBoob Duo, where she plays flute and piccolo as well as alto and bass flutes.

In addition to maintaining a private studio of 30+ students through the Steranka Flute Studio, LLC, Steranka maintains faculty positions at Carnegie Mellon University and Mercyhurst University. She has also appeared as a guest artist and lecturer at Lawrence University, Penn State University, Duke University, West Virginia University’s International Flute Symposium, and Columbus State University. Steranka’s instructional work has also included teaching actors to play the flute for film roles. She is passionate about teaching music to students of all ages and abilities, and finds joy and inspiration in the power music has to strengthen a community, topics she discussed as a panelist on the NFA 2021 National Convention discussion panel “Community-Minded Musicianship.”

Sarah Steranka holds a master's degree from Duquesne University where she studied with Jennifer Steele and performed with the Triano Woodwind Quintet under the artistic guidance of James Gorton. She earned a BFA at Carnegie Mellon University where her principal teachers were Alberto Almarza and Jeanne Baxtresser.